Welcome back to my regular Demon’s Souls video diary post. In part two we take an in depth look at the character creation and customisation facility that you are presented with at the beginning of the game.

Let me first just say that on reflection, Demon’s Souls allows you to create some of the ugliest bastards I’ve ever come across in gaming, and don’t get me wrong, I’ve created with the best of them. Fallout 3, Oblivion, World of Warcraft, Morrowind and even the bloody Sim’s allow you to create more aesthetically pleasing virtual avatars that Demon’s Souls. My guess as to the reasoning behind this is that questing over the mythical, incredibly hardcore realm of “Boletaria” requires more from a man than being a beautified, poncing, posing, nancy-boy but my suspicions are yet to be confirmed. Suffice to say that the characters give the impression of already having lived a life of extreme hardship up until this point and considering that they are about to embark on a mission of slaying Demon’s and rending their souls from their flesh I think it’s safe to say that things are not going to get any easier for the poor saps of Demon’s Souls character creation.

After selecting a name (I went with that classic fantasy story world hero’s name “phonicx”), in a departure from the norm the first option you are given is to decide which corner of the realm your character hails from. Apparently  ”West” means you’re a bog standard white guy, “East” means you are as oriental as they come, “South” makes you look like an African tribesman and “North” I couldn’t quite figure out, North seemed to me to be a cross between west and South. They may have been trying to go for a “nordic” viking look but I can’t be certain. Comment if you have anything to add on that one.

After this you are given the option to alter your characters age, the effects of which can be seen in the video (suffice to say that older is definitely NOT better in the looks department). You can then move on to the real meat of the creation tool, the sliders! Yes many, many …. many of you will be familiar with the old convention of the sliders. Slide the slider one way and something gets smaller, or darker, or moves around the place. Slide the slider the other way and body parts can be increased in size and grown out to grotesque misshapen proportions, the like of which circus freak shows would be champing at the bit to include in their acts. Whatever hideous monster you choose to lovingly craft with the help of the sliders, one thing is certain; there are a LOT of them. As is becoming more and more common with these tools nowadays you can adjust and manipulate seemingly every minute detail of the facial proportions with a relatively fine degree of accuracy. Whether this allows you to create a nice looking guy or gal to go questing the land with, or allows the roots of your darkest nightmares to take hold in physical form is up to you.